Islamabad, Dec. 17 : The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the National Assembly has expressed concern over the Foreign Office misappropriating Rs. 129.69 million.

The committee came to know that advances worth Rs. 7.887 million were paid to some 50 officials working in nine missions abroad and in the Foreign Affairs Ministry in Islamabad as allowances.

After a lapse of more than two years, the advances had neither been adjusted nor recovered.

Islamabad, Dec 17: President Asif Ali Zardari has said that Pakistanis and Indians are made of the same mud, and added that "we are not the enemies of India.

"We look enormously, and we always react emotionally. Fear breeds fear. But I must repeat, India is not the enemy of Pakistan and we are not the enemies of the Indians," Zardari said in an interview to a French daily.

Zardari said "the current tension created fear. Of course, some Pakistanis cannot help but remember that India has 4800 tanks."

Islamabad, Dec. 17: Jihadis will continue to proliferate unless Pakistan and its ruling classes re-examine and correct their current practices, says an expert.

According to Dr. Manzur Ejaz, if Pakistan had fulfilled its responsibilities, there would be no space for people like Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed

"The proliferation of jihad in Pakistan, particularly in Punjab, is not just induced by Al Qaeda or the Taliban. Rather, rapid socio-economic changes have played a major role in the propagation of jihadi culture," the Daily Times quotes him, as saying in his Washington Diary.

He says that more often than not the truth gets lost in the media hype because journalists that only seek thrillers occupy intellectual space.

Islamabad, Dec. 17 : The Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) has declared the term `gender equality', used in Section 7(a) of the National Commission for Status of Women Ordinance of 2000, as `vague and un-Islamic' and called for its repeal.

In its review of laws report for 2008, which is yet to be presented to the government, the Dawn quoted the CII as saying that instead of using `ambiguous' terms, Islamic principles of equity and justice should be implemented in letter and spirit in gender-related matters.

The council, which had opposed the constitution of the NCSW, further recommended that the commission's recommendations in Section 7(b) of the ordinance should be "in consonance with established Islamic laws".

Islamabad - Pakistanis voted against military dictatorship and for the restoration of democracy in February 18 elections, but many now doubt whether a real change has come with the removal of forme

Islamabad - In 2008, Pakistan wobbled in its fight against al-Qaeda and Taliban militants, who have grown into an enormous threat to the stability of the country and the entire South Asian region.

Less than a dozen gunmen, believed to have come from Pakistan, slaughtered more than 170 people in the Indian city of Mumbai on November 26, heightening tensions between the two nuclear-armed countries. But in Pakistan, terrorists have been equally brutal towards their own countrymen.